Like other type of arthritis, the rheumatoid arthritis type is represented by joints becoming inflamed, swollen, and painful. Movement of the joints is compromised. Sufferers might also feel a serious loss of energy. Rheumatoid arthritis is actually a disease of the immune system. The body erroneously defends itself against healthy tissues. The symptoms of the disease resemble fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and other syndromes of compromised immunity.

Much of the medical research on immune disorders has shed light on toxins. A history of toxicity can contribute to the Rheumatic disorder. Toxicity may have included acute alcohol or drug abuse, long-term pharmaceutical or anti-biotic use, or exposure to chemicals. Alcohol, in fact, has various negative physical effects.

Alcohol is said to help in cutting the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis by up to 50%, according to the research published ahead of print in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. The Scandinavian scientists and researchers base their findings on more than 2750 people taking part in two separate studies, which assessed environmental and genetic risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis disease. Over half of the participants around 1650; had the disease Rheumatic Diseases and had been matched for age, sex, and residential locality with randomly selected members of the general public.

All participants with the rheumatoid arthritis disease were quizzed about their lifestyle, including how much they smoked and drank and also the blood samples were taken to check for genetic risk factors. The results of the experiments showed that drinking alcohol was associated with a significantly lower risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis disease and also the more alcohol was consumed, the lower the risk of rheumatoid arthritis. Among those people who drank regularly, the quarter with the highest alcohol consumption were up to 50% less likely to develop the disease compared with the half who drank the least.

The scientists and researchers found that while 85 percent of the rheumatoid arthritis patients between the ages of 50 and 59 had an intermediate or high risk for developing heart disease within 10 years of diagnosis, just 27 percent of comparable non- rheumatoid arthritis patients did. Among rheumatoid arthritis patients between the ages of 60 and 69 at the start of the study, 100 percent of the RA patients had an intermediate or high risk for cardiac disease, compared with 79 percent of non- rheumatoid arthritis patients. When looking at just high risk factors among the 60 to 69 age group, the difference was even more dramatic, 85 percent for rheumatoid arthritis patients, compared to just 40 percent for non- rheumatoid arthritis patients.

The researchers were concluded with the result that more than half of rheumatoid arthritis patients 50 to 59, and all rheumatoid arthritis patients over the age of 60, had a 10 percent or greater risk of developing heart disease within 10 years of a rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis. Alcohol consumption cuts the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis disease by up to 50 percent, but smoking increases the risk, as been told by the Swedish researchers. Researchers of the same subject at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, assessed environmental and genetic risk factors for rheumatoid arthritis among 2,750 people taking part in two separate studies.